The tale of the four sisters: The Serpent's Story
by TheDaughtersOfTheMoon
Summary: The second book after The bonds between evils. This year, the group of friends will have to face a different sort of danger. What can they do against an enemy that they can't see, nor touch, just feel?
1. The fangs and the sword

**Hey, so that's the second book. Sorry it took so long. ^.^**

**Disclaimer: do I look like I owned Harry Potter? Unfortunately no, this belongs to J. , and I don't think she'll ever share it with me.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: The fangs and the sword**

_Axelle's P.O.V._

The summer had passed sweetly, slowly, carefully. Between the family visits, the beach, the mountains … it had been wonderful. But September was soon waiting at my door and I received my book list, as we reached the end of our holidays in my grandparent's house in England.

"Whoaa, you're going to have a busy year, dear!" Mum told me, glancing at the paper.

"I'm going to miss you again." Orane told me (in French). "But I know you're going to have loads of fun and in 2 years I'll come with you." I smiled.

"I'll call your Aunt, she'll be happy to take you." My dad said, finishing his coffee (yes, my dad drinks loads of coffee, my mum too, and me too if I can)

"I'll call her myself!" I spoke out loud, thinking: "Yes! I love Diagon Alley, it's like the lands of all wanders for me!"

My aunt was indeed very excited about the project of going 'shopping for books', like she said, and at 2 pm, she was planted in front of my door, and we greeted her. I love my aunt; she's always so caring, so bright.

"We'll go by car and park nearby the leaky cauldron, is that OK sweetie?"

"Awesome!" As we reached the place, i bought ice cream for both of us and we entered, laughing, the sunny and warm alley. First we went to get money from Gringotts and then I bought a magical collar for my cat, duchess, it informs me if she is sick or has lice which can be very useful. Then we went to buy new ingredients for potions at the apothecary, meeting Mistral, the list was veeeeeeeery long and the prices too. We ended up with two big brown bags. Aunt Margot told me:

"Actually, it doesn't make too much... My 7th year list though... 3 pages long, and both sides too!"

"Well it was worth it, you did get an O in that subject right?" I smiled

"Yes, well you're not that bad either, you did get 96% last year..." she tossed back.

"Well yeah."

"Where next?" My aunt asked.

"Flourish and Blotts."

"OK." When we entered, a guy with big black curls welcomed us.

"So." I said, getting out my list. "'Transfiguration, grade 2', 'Perfect Potions II', 'Learn new charms...'" When we found all my books, my aunt told me:

"Now, I am going to buy you early birthday presents, I want you to choose a book that you Gran will pay and anything else from me."

"Oh cool! Thanks that's fabulous!" It took me a while to choose a book, in the end, I took 'A few famous magical animals'. I flicked through it and saw it included Merlin's unicorn, the dragon who saved the wizard village of Sorcera in California from a dark wizard, the first hippogriff whose speech was understood by wizards... It was so new to me, and interesting too.

"OK. Very good choice." my aunt said. She had chosen for herself a book, 'magical africa' because the guy with big black curls had talked to her a lot about it. We paid and left the shop, meeting a very hot 5th year I knew by sight and I smiled at him.

"Aiming high, aren't you Axie?" Aunt Margot said maliciously.

"Hey! I only smiled at him!" I protested.

"And you have other plans..." she added

"No!"

"Don't try denying it, I can read your mind..."

"You can?" I asked, my eyes wide.

"Yep." she replied, taking an important look.

"You're lying."

"No, I can! It is called Legillimency, the magical art of reading minds. You can block it by using Occlumency, to block the entrance to your thoughts. You learn that stuff in 6th or 7th year, it's quite complicated but useful..." she explained. I was starting to believe her but I promised myself to check anyway. "Do you want something from the broomstick shop as a present?" She certainly knew how to make me happy again.

"Yes! Let's go!" I said, taking her hand and running off. We finnally bought a pair of gloves for flying.

"They are extra adhesive to prevent sliding and increase the griping capability of the flyer, it also makes sure your hands do not get sore. That's why they are very good for tricks like diving up or down abruptly or making are very comfortable and aloud perfectly normal hand movemnets." The blond shop assistant had told us.

"Since she is seeker, it might be useful..." my aunt had hesitated.

"Yes, sure Madam, very beneficial, it can change everything!"

"OK then." she had in the end agreed.

"Thank you auntie Margot!" I exclaimed, hugging her and then we walked off carrying my package.

We normally spent a lot more time in diagon alley, but that day, the rest of my family was leaving by car to go back to France and, as I was staying at my gandparents' until I left for school, I needed to say goodbye, quite sad, I have to admit. My grandma put her arm around me and brought me inside.

"Really, you'll be going to school in two days, you'll see your friends, and until then you will be with your grandfather and me, you won't have time to get sad, with all the classes... You'll write owls home (yes, it's the magical branch of my family, my mum's parents and so my aunt's too, I forgot to mention...) and then you'll see them at christmas, don't worry love..."

"Yeah, thanks Granny." I replied, smiling at her, and feeling better. I thought of my friends, I had got many letters from them during the vacations, a quick muggle postcard from Marianne which said:

"Dear Axelle,

We're having a lovely summer, we are now

in the town we used to live in before, in Africa!

I saw all my friends again, even my teachers

and our old neighbours. The town hasn't changed

much, but didn't choose the best time of year

to go: it's dry and baking hot here, but we're all

very happy.

Hope you are equally having a great time,

Lots of love,

Marianne

PS: tell me what u r doing!"

and a longer letter from Dom which describe to me her trip:

"We travelled from France to Poland by car for once, and so stopped at all interesting places on the way: we visited Europa park for a day, a theme park with really cool rides like one which ends up in water so that you are soaking wet, it was so huge we probably didn't have time to see half the rides in one day, we also stopped in Strasbourg, which is a nice town, and then swivelled through Germany, ending up in Berlin. Berlin is very, very nice, full of historical resources, museums... i learnt a lot about the 1st and 2nd world wars, but in a very interesting way. It was all very sad though, we saw bunkers, part of the Berlin wall, museums about Jews... It's important we learn about these stuff to not repeat it. s

Anyway, we then arrived in Poland, in our house my mum designed and my dad built himself, ok almost himself, near Warsaw. I saw my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, my cousins... And on Tuesday I am leaving for a ten days camp with some of my best friends there, we will do a lot of sailing, and other activities, it's going to be awesome. I'll tell you all about it when we go back to school (awww :( lol i'm only joking, but it's true, we're till better on holidays right?).

Ah, and thanks for your letter, I was really happy to get it... 30 minutes before leaving for 6 weeks... that was very lucky!

Love you loads,

Dominika Sylvia Emma Malicka (formal!)"

I also got a letter from James telling me about how he went snorkelling in the canaries and was 'surrounded by fish and coral of all colours, more than I could ever have dreamed off' and I was relived by a note from Albus telling me they were having a fab time and that James was getting better, not so sad about Collin anymore...

Rose send me an owl to tell me about her very new experience:

"We took the PLANE to the United States! It was just an amazing experience! At first I as laughing my head off because I couldn't half believe that huge piece of metal was going to fly, with people inside by the way, but it did, and when I felt myself rising off the ground I nearly had a heart attack! I looked out of the window to see the town getting smaller and smaller and smaller... Hugo was thrilled too, and the other people in the plane were watching us suspiciously. MY mum told us a bit about how it worked and my dad was ill the whole flight. I have to say it was really long, a portkey would have been a thousand times faster, but it was a very interesting sensation, and the games, movies, and food were quite good."

Finally, the twins had sent a joint letter telling me about the incredible time they had, first in Hawaii, surfing, then in 'a nice place of the Italian Alps where it is very good for mountain hiking' says Scorpius, while Arachno adds: 'we hiked a lot. The scenery is very pretty, we are so much closer to nature that way and being with both our parents is a rare and precious time (with school, and work...) and so the hikes are just amazing, even though, as you probably get, me and Scorpius prefer surfing to walking...'

"I really do have good friends..." I thought.

I sat in front of the fireplace and started to read my book. It was in chronological order and I decided I would start from the end (or the most recent event, I know, it's logical, but it's me so...) As I opened that page, my mouth dropped open in ... surprise? admiration? shock? interest? The title was: 'the Basilisk' and I blinked as the introduction unrolled itself in front of my eyes. It clearly explained the basilisk was a large, poisonous snake that could kill or petrify with one glance, that Salazar Slytherin had put him in the 'Chamber of Secrets' and that HARRY POTTER (!) had killed it with the sword of Godric Gryffindor. I devoured all the pages which concerned the subject, they included a fact file about the Basilisk, the whole story in detail, facts about the chamber... and an interview of Harry!

"Gran, is it true, the Chamber of Secrets stuff, the basilisk, Harry Potter and everything?" I asked, boiling of excitement.

"Of course! And otherwise, it wouldn't be in your book, would it ? And you can ask your friends' father right?" I was really excited, and before we left, I reread the pages, again and again, remembering every single detail by heart, and automatically, nearly against my will, replacing Harry by James and Ginny by myself.


	2. The greatest dad

Chapter II: The greatest dad

_Marianne's P.O.V._

My heart swelled as I started to run toward the wall between platform 9 and 10, on the first September. I had spent two wonderful months, resting revisiting, travelling, playing and even sometimes larging for school to start. There I was running into leig wall, after a great summer holiday and a visit to Diagon alley, I was a little doubtful and worried probably the people around would have found it very odd if they had seen. As I had planned, I went threw the wall and arrived onto platform 9and ¾, facing the great and red Hogwarts express. A few seconds later my mum arrived,planting, carrying my 4 year old sister, who was hitting her and shouting furiously :"Bad Mummie!"and then to me "Mummie tried to crash me into the wall! Bad mummie!" My brother and my dad came running in, the second one looking a little amazed, ensure and bewildered , but trying to hide it, my dad's a muggle, and a mathematician, he doesn't get the things that don't make sense and don't have an explanation, like magic. He said, trying to sound as casual as possible

"Your sister made so much noise she attracted the attention of all mouggles…"

Mum burst out laughing, I smiled and said : " you mean the muggles, dad!""Yoah, that's probably what I do mean"

My sister was still talking about mum's attempt to turn her into a " flat Alice." I gave her a big hug and glancing over my mum's shoulder, I saw Rose and Dominika as happy as if they had just heard a new library was opening next door, Axelle was there too. I ran to then and gave each of them a warm hug,we were so excited that we were jumping up and down enthusiastically. After a minute the three of us started to drag our trunks up to a door, we stopped, out of breath, Rose raised her eyebrows and moved them all in with a tiny, flick of her wand.

I ran back to my parents and hissed the Goodbye spending a lot of time and finally say "See you at Chistmas! BYE!"

I met the girls again and climbed in. There, we found a compartment, the same one as always, in the back, put our trunks away and came back outside. We bumped into James, Fred and Albus on the way. I jumped on Fred and Axelle on James , givind them a huge hug as they struggled to breathe and I said : "Oh, Freddy! I missed you!" Albus looked at us questionningly, murmured "Fan attack" and finally, mimicking us jumped on Dominika and said:

"_Oh, Dom! I missed you_!" Dom screamed and pushed him aside.

"Stop it Albus, that's not nice!" I said

" You're just jealous!" Axelle hinted

" I missed you too, you know!" I smiled

"Yeah, Albus! We like marks of affection!" James pointed out

"Yeah right!" Albus anwered "They were strangling you!" , we all started laughing and hugging Albus and we finnally invited them into our compartment.

"Where are the Malfoys?" I asked as the train whistled and started to move

"Not here yet…"All answered.

"What do you mean yet, if they don't come now, when are they going to come?" I asked worried, al shrugged and we all sat down the seats. The conversations were all about the holidays, then James borrowed Dominika's MP3 and started to listen to some metal song curiousles as the conversations whirled around owl subjects.

"I chose to do care of magical creatures, divination, sports and arithmancy." said Fred

"I'm sure to do Arithmancy" Dominika said. I was worried sick about Scopius and Arachno, I had never heard of anyone missing the train, I decided to ask Albus if James had had good holidaysdespite his best friend's loss.

"Well, yeah. We tried this muggle therapy that Grandpa Weasly recommended us, psychology or something, it worked I think. He was much better"

"Good" I said as I smiled, Suddenly a hard crack was heard in the corridor and then a few screams. James darted up, he had like his father a strange feeling that it was his duty to help whoever needed help. He burst into the corridor his wand at the ready, followed by our group.

Once at the end of the corridor, he lowered his ward and pocked it, he looked disapointed that it wasn't something more dangerous our exciting . He shrugged his shoulders and said in a very casual and even bored tone. " Its only your palish twins who apparated slap-bang in the middle of the train with their palish dad. Nothing more, not to worry."

And sure enough,there they were, Scorpius and Arachno Malfoy with their father, very alike all of then and looking awkward as Scorpius whispered "Oooops ! Meant to be more descrete… " The father had an air of satisfaction and waving good bye,he dissaparated in anther loud crack. In the compartment, we squished ourselves to make space for the two new guests. We were crushed like a bunch of sardines.

We exchanged a few conversations with the twins about their holidays at the Malfoy Manor and elsewhere. A few minutes later, James stood up saying : "You known what, its not that I don't like you lot but I think me and Fred will go to another compartment where there is more space and air to breathe, what do you think, Freddy?"

"Yep! Maybe the one with Lysander and his friends, or Simone Vane's"

"Too giggly" remarked James, Fred nodded and continued

"Don't take it as an offence or anything, it's just a little crowded. Don't consider it as jumping off a sinking ship or as abondonning you, it nothing of the sort."

"We are not sinking !" Dominika prosted as we all erruted into a laugh.

"See you then! Adios" Fred said disapering behind the door

" Feel free to take our trunks on your way" James added comically"

"Forget it!" Rose ripposted

Later on, after we had but our robes on and before the sweet trolley arrived, conservations were going well, a few of at the same time, dissolving or starting as fast as a breath or a laugh. Whilst Dominika and Rose were having debate about something in "Magical abilities" me, the twins, Albus and Axelle were discussing our parents, Albus' in particular. He was boasting openly about his dad's achievements, his qualities and stuff.

"You know he also found the Chamber of Secrets, you know about that don't you Dominika? Oh never mind, continue your argument, don't listen to me, he won the triwizarding tournament and he was so good at DADA that he fought Valdemort and gave classes to his friends so they could defend themselves , he did it the Room of Requirement, you know about that don't Ooops .. Um.. you don't know obviously..."

"What ? said Dom "What is that?", she was suddenly interested, leaving their debate aside.

"No…its nothing, I'm not meant to know…the teachers don't want!" He mumbled confusedly. Scorpius, who hadn't understood the subject had switched a little, was rambling about his dad switching gravely sides and being the best at potions.

After a few minutes of persuasion and insisting, Albus started gradually to give facts and Scorpius stopped talking to himself and listened.

"Well, the room of requirement is um... a room..." I raised my eyebrows, Axelle shouted "Duh!" and Dominika said "No! Really?". Rose gave a heavy sigh, she waited, even though, she, Arachno and Scorpius knew too. We encoureaged Albus to continue:

"Um... when you walk past there is no door, then you walk past three times thinking hard about what you want, like a hiding place, or meating place, and the room turns into it, well like... yeah... that's it."He finished awkwardly. We stared at him.

"Is it true? The room turns into what ever room you need?" I said in disbelief. Rose and Albus nodded.

"Our parents used to go there frequently, for secret meetings of the DA, or to hide stuff."

"Our dad too." Said Scorpius glumly "When he was a- you know what..." There was a silence, filled with sighs and memories coming back. A few students clustured behind the window to look at the children of the famous Harry Potter, Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger-Weasly. They stood there, gobsmacked, or whispering excitidely. Rose threw an exasperated look at all of them before closing the blinds with a whisk of her wand. We heard protests. Dominika suddenly jumped and said, not able to contain, herself.

"That's great! Do you imagine? Thinking about a forbidden book and ending up in a forbidden library and learning all about advance, complicated, interesting, dark stuff..." I smiled.

"By the way, where is it?" Axelle asked curiously

"Oh! On the seventh floor, opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, you know, and the dancing trolls that-"

"That'senough Albus!" Rose interrupted "That's supposed to be a secret and now they're going to go there and mess around!"

"So?" Albus said

"But just imagine!" said Arachno, his light blue eyes gleaming, "We could think of a place to have fun and we would end up in a funfair, withrides and food and no teachers... right under their noses too!" A laugh errupted and the room was filled with a lively atmosphere until the end of the journey, bursting with giggles and excited conversations. This increase even more when the sweet trolley passed and we made reserves of chocolate frogs, fizzing whizbees, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, licorice wands, and more which were much smaller by the time we reached the Hogsmeade sation and the castle.


	3. A strange transformation

Chapter III: A strange transformation

Dominika's P.O.V.

_So the room of requirement _does _exist_. I thought for the thousandth time this day. The idea of it was too much for me to imagine it. A room that would give you anything that you wished for, well, except for the seven 'impossibles', but even that could be surpassed. Instead of asking for water or food, you would only have to ask for a passage to a place with food and drinks._ I wonder if we could travel this way. Asking for an Egyptian pyramid. _My thoughts got lost as we arrived in our carriages to the castle. I still remembered the excitement of the year before, and the lake… I looked back, and thought seeing the little boats in the distance, but I couldn't be sure. I realized that my friends were already heading towards the Great Hall and I had to run to catch up.

"You could have waited for me." I said. They only looked at me, and Rose smirked.

"What, and loose the satisfaction of seeing you making a fool of yourself? It doesn't happen often. We can't help it." I glared at them… and burst out laughing. They joined in, but we were hushed at (A/N: Seriously Dom, it's not even proper English. – Paulina; oh, great. Now even _you_ are here.) and we had to stop laughing.

This year, all I could think of, though was the food. With the stress gone, I found out that my stomach was demanding _food._ But to my discontent, McGonagall had a _lot _to talk about_._ I wasn't really listening until a tall guy stood up. He was new. I felt I knew him from somewhere, and found it weird that I couldn't recall his name. After all, it's not every day that you meet a man with blue hair.

"But, that's _Teddy!"_ Albus exclaimed suddenly. That's when I realized that Victoire's boyfriend was standing in front of us. He was nineteen by now probably, and I couldn't think of any reason for him to be there, except of course if he wanted to become a teacher, which I doubted.

"Ha! I knew I saw him somewhere!" I added, half to myself. The rest stared at me. "Ok, ok! I'll shut up."

McGonagall introduced Teddy as an assistant of Prof. Lovegood-Longbottom. That meant Defense Against the Dark Arts. He sat down, and when the food appeared, he was the subject of many conversations.

"But why didn't he tell us?" Al complained.

"Maybe because he wanted to make a surprise?" I said, not sure myself. Personally, I didn't care, and felt sick of the talk the Slytherin girls from behind me had. I looked at Marianne, who was sitting next to me, and seeing her face, understood that she overheard them as well.

"Well, I'm happy. At least this year sounds interesting with _ze_ room and Teddy as a teacher, we won't get bored!" Axe exclaimed. I chuckled.

"As if _last _yearwas not interesting at all." Marianne said.

"Yeah." Added Scorpius. "After all you only left us alone and went to the forbidden forest and defended a centaur. _We_ should be the ones complaining!"

"He's right Axe, you know?" I nodded.

"It's not fair you're all against me!" Axelle said, but with a grin on her face. Suddenly, somebody said.

"Well, it's not easy not to find you, Al."

"Teddy!" Al stood up. He stopped though "Aren't you supposed to- Oh." We have been so lost in our talk we didn't even realize that prof. McGonagall bid us goodnight.

"How are you guys?" Teddy asked.

"Cool." Answered Rose, who just appeared with Arachno next to her. "Why didn't you tell us you were coming? Did you tell Vi at least?"

"No. I didn't want to. Vi didn't know until yesterday night."

"But _why _are you here?" Al asked.

"Oh, seriously Albus, do you _ever _listen? Teddy's here for his auror training. They all have to help in a school or in a lesser company… you know, as assistants to gain some experience. You're so clueless sometimes…"

"You mean hopeless." I added. During the vacations I had that huge frenzy on that word and didn't stop saying it whenever I could. It turned out as a habit now, and I couldn't stop myself. It drew my sister crazy, but I couldn't help it.

That night, I couldn't sleep, but in the end, I managed to rest a bit. After all, the next day was going to be a big big big day, as said my favourite character of the book I was currently reading. (A/N: Wow, that's _so _mysterious. I have _no _idea who that could be. – Scorpius.; Hey, Effie's cool! And Peeta too! – Axelle; no he's not- Dominika; He is! You don't think so only because you like Gale more!- Marianne; Jeez, I don't know any of you! – Dominika.)

The first week was quite normal. The difference between the first and the second year was that the Maths and English weren't held at all, because we were focusing much more on the magical subjects before the new ones would come. The Saturdays were free, the only change for better, but there was an hour of a subject more on every single day, so the number of hours didn't change. It suited everyone well, maybe except for two _certain _fellow Ravenclaws and their Gryffindor friend, who were wailing and grunting every time something reminded them of it. They were lucky enough, for the first Friday afternoon was "sacrificed" in order to proceed with the quidditch tryouts, and so they were loosing_ three hours_ of class.

"Hi guys? What we doing today?" I asked as saw my housemates in the Great Hall. I left late, as I couldn't get out of my bed… was just too tired after the sleepless-night caused, by a way too interesting book- as usual.

"Well, not much, really. We start with Double potions, then we have Herbology, and Transfiguration. Then we have an hour of History of magic, and then it's OVER!" Scorpius answered, as if the word "over" was the most amazing word in the whole world.

"Nu-uh. You're wrong mate. It won't be over yet, for we're going to have the tryouts. Dude, I'm stressed!" Albus frowned.

"It's nothing, really you just mount your broomstick, and fly. The rest comes quite naturally." Axe said.

"But you're different. It's not this way to-"

"No it's not. If you play good enough to make it for the team, then it _is_ this way. Oh, I almost forgot. " I cut in.

"No stress. That's the rule number one." Marianne finished. Axelle looked at her weirdly and asked:

"How do you know?"

"You were just kind of repeating this for the whole of last year maybe?" She answered with a smile that said: _So who's the boss?_

Scorpius looked as if he was about to say something when the bell rang. I grabbed quickly a sandwich before the food disappeared, and followed everyone to the dungeons.

When we arrived Pr. Slughorn was already there, writing something on the board. He was the kind of professor who liked to use magical ways. Maybe because you didn't use that much spells to make a potion…

"Hello students, please sit down in groups of two. Today we're doing a cooling potion. It eases a little pain and calms an irritated person. It isn't that complicated, but it will be easier to do it in pairs. Go on, hurry up!"

We were with the Gryffindors, so I went with Axelle and Marianne with Rose. The boys couldn't quite agree, but after a time Scorpius went to work with Jake .

We took our Robes off leaving only the uniform, and began the 'crafting' as we liked to call it. While Axelle went to gather the ingredients, I started to put in order our tools. The cauldron in the middle, the tubes on the side, the knifes, the huge copper spoon that served usually as a ladle…

As the time passed our potion was getting more and more… soft. It had that light, blue colour - the same shade as Rose's and Marianne's. I was cutting a flobberworm when my hand slipped and I almost pierced my little finger on the side. A single drop of blood emerged from under the skin. It was nothing, but my hand slowly became red, and the colour soon spread to my arm, then the shoulders. I shrieked, and it started to change colours. It became pure white, and after a few moments, green.

"What's going on?" I asked myself. Axe was staring at me and Marianne was showing my arm to Rose who got a weird look on her face when she saw me.

"I'll continue the work alone. Better go see Ms. Patil, the new healer. It could be something dangerous" Axelle said.

"But I've never heard of such a thing!" I exclaimed in a hushed voice.

"No offense Dom, but we're sort of in the _second_ year. It's normal you haven't heard of that kind of magic yet."

"Oh, because you've had?"

"No, but that's not the point. Go. I'll be all right."

"You sure? I can help you, it doesn't hurt…" I trailed off as my arm turned fluorescent pink. I sighed. "Maybe, just maybe, you're right after all."

I put the robes back on and asked the teacher if I could go to the toilets. As he nodded, I went out of the classroom and ran to the Hospital Wing. The corridors were empty, it was almost the end of the first hour though, and I had to hurry up if I wanted to get unnoticed. Although my robes covered my arms, my hands were now both purple, and I had a weird feeling that my head wasn't normal either.

In five minutes I was knocking on the wooden doors of the Hospital Wing. Ms. Patil opened almost instantly. She stared at me and let me in.

"I was on potions when I cut myself, and… well… I changed colours."

"Not only colours I see."

"Sorry?"

"Look at yourself in the mirror." She said as she handed me a simple piece of looking glass dating probably about a hundred years. I gasped as I saw my face. My ears were pointy, just like my teeth. They were almost like those of a wolf. _Or those of a werewolf. _I thought remembering the adventure of last year. My hair turned white, and my eyes became black.

"What's going on! Can you change it? What is that!?" I panicked. Quickly, almost without a glance, Mrs. Patil pinched me with a needle in the arm. She then took a glass _tube_ and caught my blood. _At least my blood stayed red. _I thought. I saw as Ms. Patil use the floo and as she sent my blood off somewhere. _Could it be St Mungo? Please, God, let it be just a curious case of something little. Let me change back fast!._

"I sent your blood to a friend of mine. She'll study it, and will tell me what it is. I've never met with anything like that. There's one last test I need to do. Now. Concentrate. Calm down. Ok? Relax. Completely. You can close your eyes if you want. Think about your normal self. Ok. Take deep breaths…"

And so on. We were sitting like this for a long time. When I finally opened my eyes, I was back to normal. I couldn't help but smile. Ms. Patil was still talking about how I needed to do this every time something happened, and before I went to sleep, but I didn't really listen. I felt good enough to go to Herbology and Transfiguration. My friends wanted to know what was going on, but I only said that Ms. Patil wasn't sure. Somehow I didn't want to talk about the whole change with anyone. The time passed fast from that point. In Herbology we were talking about non-magical plants and their use for magical purposes. Transfiguration was as always interesting, although we didn't do anything new. We were practicing everything we'd seen so far, and Rose and I tried to make a chain of transfigures on only one object, although it was much more difficult than it seemed.

We ate in haste. After all, there was no time to spare, as said Arachno. He was trying to stress the boys up, laughing at them and teasing them. I couldn't help it and laughed along with the other girls. Rose sat with us too, and was talking about quidditch with some third year. They were arguing about some match. That's when I realized I didn't really care. All these people were so excited about the games, and all I loved was flying. I didn't play for Quidditch as everyone else, but for the pleasure of flying. Somehow the thought made me sad. The realization destroyed in a second everything I felt about Quidditch. It spoiled my excitement, my happiness and stress.

Hoping I would nonetheless get into the team this year, I followed my friends to the pitch. Arachno and Rose went back to the castle, their tryouts coming up only at three pm.

As the pitch approached, I saw the team on the side. Along with Axelle, I went to see them.

"Hello everyone!" Axelle greeted them cheerfully. It felt so weird without … and … . Still, The new captain, … smiled and said.

"Now that we're here, I just want to tell you good luck. I believe I'll see you all in the team anyway, but believe me; nothing will stop me from replacing you if there are better ones than you. So do your best."

"YEAH!" We cheered.

"Who's the best"

"Ra-Ven-Claw!"

"Who's the best?!"

"Ra-Ven-Claw!"

"WHO'S THE BEST?!"

"RA-VEN-CLAW!"

"Um, guys, I've got an announcement to tell." I said. The cheers stopped. "I-I drop. I'm sorry. You're awesome, but there's just too much to do, and I don't want to continue all this if I have barely the time to sleep and do my homework. I'm sorry, but you'll have to go on without me. I'm sure there's someone to replace me. Maybe even better than me."

"No one's better than you. No one can replace you." Sansa said with tears in her eyes.

"Hey, it's ok. I'm sure it will all be good." I managed to say. I hugged her, and then everyone else. I waved for a goodbye and headed towards the benches. I didn't reach them yet, when someone caught me from behind.

"What's going on?" Scorpius asked me.

"Nothing. Aren't you going to try for the beater? Where's Al?" I answered.

"Don't change the subject. Why aren't you with everyone?"

"I quit."

"What!" His eyes widened.

"It's ok. Really. I just… realized I never really wanted it, you know…" I sat down. "All this time, the only thing I liked about Quidditch was the flying. Nothing else. I felt it was unfair for those who wanted to play for the game. Besides, I'm a bit sick off all the fuss about it. Quidditch's just a game. Nothing else."

"Yeah…" He said, not really convinced. After a second of hesitation he sat next to me. "Maybe you are right. But I still like it. Quidditch is the only way to forget about school. The game itself is cool too."

"I still prefer football?"

"Foot-what?"

"Muggle sport, similar to quidditch actually, but different, more simple perhaps. I'll tell you later. Now go, or you won't have the chance to try for the team."

"You'll cheer for me?" He got that look of his that he probably got from his father.

"You wish! Now go."

"Only if you promise-"

"-Ok, ok. I'll cheer. Now go, child!" I teased him.

"Ha! So you do care whether I play or not!" I sent him a look that said-_Oh, no way Sherlock. _He grinned and ran towards the three emerging groups - Seeker wannabe's, beater wannabe's and chaser wannabe's. As the tryouts passed, I looked at everyone and realized that some people were really good, although the last year's players were almost always the best anyway. Axelle was surely going to stay. The same with Bran and Sansa. As for the rest I wasn't so sure. But one was obvious. This year's team was going to be great.

The evening came, and we were back in our common room. I sat near the fireplace when Marianne and Axelle came and sat next to me.

"You did great today." I said as I saw them. "Both of you."

"You sure you're ok?" Axe asked me.

"Yes. Pretty much. Don't worry for me. It was my decision."

"Scorpius told us what reasons you have. Dom, it's not enough to loose all this!"

"That's my decision, mine only. And for me, it's enough. Things happened, and I just found out that I didn't want to carry on."

"Had this morning's accident to do something with it?"

"No."

"Well, if you're happy, I'm ok with it. I just hope I'll make it for the team." Marianne concluded. Axelle reassured her, and we stayed there, siting in silence watching the flames.

"I'm happy we're here together." Axelle said.

"Me too. I don't know what would have happened to me if I came here alone." Mar added. I smiled and hugged her.

"But we're here."

"Together." My two friends said in unison. My smile widened.


	4. Wordsearch

Chapter IV: Word search

_Marianne's P.O.V._

"We're not so busy today." Axelle remarked mysteriously.

"Um… no…" I replied. We were sitting in the Ravenclaw common room, chatting about everything and nothing and playing . Dom had just come back from breakfast and the weather outside was amazing.

"I guess it's because it's only the first school week and because it's the week-end." Rose explained, a bit suspicious.

"Let's go outside!" Dom proposed.

"Yes! That's what I've been telling them for ages!" I approved enthusiastically

"You said it once, two minutes ago." Axelle noticed.

"I wouldn't mind going, it looks lovely out there. And the boys are there." Rose gave her opinion.

"I had other plans for today…" Axelle said more mysterious than ever.

"You want us to go to the Room of requirement today?" I guessed, astounded.

"How do you know?" She commented, her eyes wide. I shrugged and opened my mouth to speak but Dom said:

"Actually, let's go! I'm so curious of going to that place, it could turn out to be… amazing!"

"It is!" said Rose amused. "I don't really object to going today, though we could wait for the rainy time of year when we'll have nothing to do… And you Marianne?"

"That would be amazing!" I said, really interested. "But what exactly are we going to do there?"

"I know." Dom answered. The potions teacher gave us questions to prepare the next class…"

"Yeah, us too. I guess we shouldn't have made so much noise." Rose speculated.

"It was mainly because Jake imitated him when he wasn't looking and then everyone laughed." I thought.

"Yeah, well we can do that in 5 minutes and then take a look at other, good books!" (Aren't you guys maniacs about books! - Albus, Scorpius agrees.) Axelle suggested. She put her hand in the middle of the circle.

"Yes!" I put my hand on top of hers.

"I'm going!" Said Rose, doing the same.

"Me too, not missing this!" Dom joked as she closed the pile of Hands!

"Well, let's go amigo!" Axelle concluded.

"Axelle, we don't speak Spanish…" Rose told her.

"I know. Still, using Spanish words in sentences is just so popular at the moment!"

"Hopeless…" Dom added. (Hey! That's copyright! I'm the one who says this! - Lise/Keila.)

A few minutes later we were walking on the 7th floor, acting casual, but we didn't meet much people on the way, everyone was outside by this amazing weather. We were whispering excitedly between ourselves:

"We'll ask for a library with books and games…"

"Imagine what we'll find out in these books!"

"Yeah, well next time we'll ask for a funfair, a party or concert…"

"Totally…" We arrived at the place, and we stared from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, trying to teach trolls in tutus how to dance ballet, to the blank piece of wall opposite. Rose stepped forward and walked past three times, the lines of her face showing deep thinking. Nothing happened.

"Give it a try Mar." she said. Dom checked both ends of the corridors.

"Yeah, go." I copied Rose's movements and a large wooden door appeared slap-bang on the stretch of wall.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhh!" Axelle said, shooting towards the door.

"Relax Axe!" Dom spoke, having trouble to contain her excitement too. She put her hand on the handle and pressed down, pushing the wood. The door slightly creaked and we poked our heads inside.

Suddenly, footsteps were heard at the end of the corridor and Dominika who was quickest to react pushed all in the room. It was large, the roof was a large dome, painted like an Italian palace, old wooden shelves were lined against the walls, with some on little mezzanines overlooking the main place, in the middle of which was an ornate fountain. There were high windows and imaginary gardens behind them.

"Wow!" Rose exclaimed. "Imagine the magic which animates this room! So complex, fascinating…"

"This is a zen place. There even is a muggle gym!" I remarked.

"And a food place!" Dom pointed out.

"WHERE?" Axelle screamed going crazy.

"This place is amazing!"

"Right! Homework!" Dom reminded us.

"We're in a fabulous place and all you think about is homework?" I asked her, amused.

"Important things first, then we can mess around." Rose supported her.

"Yeah! It's potions… important subject." Axelle finally admitted.

We all sat down at the table, and opened encyclopaedias to look for the answers to the complicated questions he had set us. Axelle had finished first, she didn't rush it or anything - I think- just that things were clearer for her, she got them right away, like me in herbology and Dom and Rose in … hum… everything! but they were being careful with sentence structure and presentation, not like Axelle. When she had finished, she started to look at other books, and exclaimed suddenly:

"Wow! It actually explains how to make new spells here! And loads of other stuff… don't get it though. IMAGINE INVENTING A NEW SPELL !" she shouted enthusiastically. We all rushed and nearly killed Axelle trying to read the book.

"There are loads of other books!" she complained. After a while we were all reading through huge books, my one was on ghosts and souls and what could keep you alive and stuff. Then me and Axe went to play on this muggle gym rolling carpet.

"Oh my god!" Dom exclaimed, "There is a duelling practice device! It's amazing!" Dom had been wandering around the room, and was now standing, pushing a curtain to the side, and staring at the large mannequin.

"Does it actually move for real?" I asked, in disbelief.

"Yes." Rose said. "It moves like a real wizard but the spells just hit you, they don't work. And you can destroy it, it will always rebuild itself and stop when you ask, unlike a death eater." She reasoned.

"Still! We could practice with it, it could be useful! If we have to face more than werewolves later…" Axelle said gravely.

"By the way, I wanted to tell you before I found this, "Dom said, she waved a book at us. "There are actually things about horcruxes in here! " Dom exclaimed breathless. We dove for her book like with Axelle but she pushed us back.

"There are other copies… I hope!" I said desperate.

"You betcha!" said Rose, taking them from the shelf. I looked absentmindedly at my watch and jumped in shock:

"Gosh! Guys! IT'S ACTUALLY QUARTER TO 5!" I screamed.

"So?" Axelle said.

"Axe, you're not following, the quidditch try-out results were being put up at half past four…" Rose explained.

"And she wanted to be there early." Dom continued.

"Exactly. Let's go!"

"They're not going to fly away before we get there!" Axelle moaned, when I shot out of the room. The girls pushed her outside. She whispered, talking to the room (and then you make fun of Dom when she talks to the ceiling?):

"We'll be back soon!" And we all started sprinting to the main hall. On the way, I felt panic rise in me. I loved quidditch, I really did, I had done well in the try-outs, but what if it hadn't been enough?

"You'll try again next year, and the year after… You've got all your life to live!" Rose told me, breathing hard. Then I seemed to see a light, the truth glimmering ahead, as we reached the last corridors.

"I got

me it!" I whispered. Axelle seemed alarmed by the fact I was so sure, so confident.

"Really, you might not get in, but that we'll be ok…" she tried.

"Don't worry I got it." Dom and Axelle looked at each other and shrugged. I sped up and arrived in the hall before the 3 other girls. There was a big group around the notice board. As I made my way towards the wall, pushing the other students, I caught some Ravenclaw faces glaring at. This was a really good sign. I reached it. There was my name on the Ravenclaw quidditch players' list. In blue letters. My whole, full name. There could be no mistakes.

"I am in!" I shouted at the girls who had just arrived and held them into a tight hug.

"Well done Marianne." Albus shot at me. He didn't seem angry, just disappointed, he had hoped to get in as well. I was so happy I was hugging everyone, Scorpius, Mistral, Fred (that's obvious!), James, Lysander, Cecile (the captain), Albus… That's when I realised how tired I was, my heart had beaten so fast from excitement and from the run I felt dizzy and had hot flushes.

"How about we get a glass of pumpkin juice to chill down?" I asked the girls.

"Sure."

"But where?" Albus asked.

"The room of requirement?" I suggested to him.

"Good one." Dom said.

"I think this room will turn out to be really handy." Rose declared.

And it did.


	5. Complications

Chapter V: Complications

_Axelle's P.O.V._

The alarm rang, the old fashioned, ear piercing, bell noise. Just that sound, blowing me brutally awake, was going to make me bad tempered for the morning. But what choice did I have, now I had lost my phone, which was supposed to wake me up everyday with 'hot n cold'? I pressed the snooze button and turned in my bed, planning on sleeping again. But apparently, fate wasn't on my side that day and another annoying sound stirred me from my warm bed:

"Hey Axelle! He-lo-o! Wake up!" It was Dom.

"No! Let me sleep!"

"But we need to go to breakfast, then class..."

"I don't care!"

"And I've got a surprise for you..." she sais mysteriously.

"You do?" I asked, unconvinced but suddenly very interested.

"I found your mobile!" she shouted.

"No! Oh god, you did?"

"Yep." Marianne said, barging in the room, holding it in her hand.

"Oh, thank you so much guys! I was really worrying you know (not as much as Dom when she 'lost' her PSP and found it 2 minutes later though...)You know how useful it is, how I missed it... (blah blah blah...)" I sais, holding the phone to my heart. "Where was it by the way? I had looked every where!"

"Well..." Marianne started. "We were like, both in the common room when Gwen asked us if she could borrow a conditioner from one of us, so Dom went to get hers and, in the cupboard, behind all the shampoos, soaps and stuff, she found it." She explained.

"Oh... I guess I'm not very tidy..." I concluded. They nodded, grinning.

"Anyway, you've got 20 minutes to get dressed and eat breakfast and we've been waiting for you, so chop chop!" Dominika exclaimed, rushing me out.

I went into the great hall and greeted my other friends. I quickly ate a croissant and a sandwich and drank warm milk. After that, we had 1 hour of charms, double transfiguration cut by a break of 15 minutes, one hour of DADA and then we sat down at the same table to eat lunch.

"Hey! We have fish with pasta and cream!" Albus said happily.

"Yes!" Scorpius said. _Boys..._ We all ate with good appetites and were about to start a fruit salad when a loud scream was heard.

We jumped in fright and I nearly choked myself with the water I was drinking. We all turned around, even the startled teachers, looking for the person who had shouted It was a Slytherin boy, maybe 4th year, who was screaming on the top of his voice, gesticulating wildly. The weird thing was, what he said meant nothing and he seemed to be shouting at no one, talking all alone... He was acting like a real savage, or mad person. He nearly tried to pull his hair out, but people rushed to stop him and some teachers too. We watched, really surprised, some scared, some doubtful, but all like... shocked.

"What happened to him?"

"What is wrong with that dude?"

"He's never been like this!"

"He's turning mad..."

Anyway...

So we watched as some people took him away, probably to the hospital wing. I could see Marianne and some other of my friends looking concerned. The rest of the day went by quite normally and two days later, Friday came and that day we didn't really feel like doing our homework. Suddenly, Marianne said:

"The thing about Sorial (the guy who started to act strange) is really... scary..."

"It's probably just stress, fatigue, sadness... He should be OK..." Scorpius said. Marianne frowned.

"Hagrid might know more about it." Dom suggested

"Let's go and see him then!" Albus exclaimed.

"Yeah, we'll do homework tomorrow." I agreed.

So we set off to get Arachno and Rose and started to make our way towards the outside, past the greenhouses, towards the rustic hut that belonged to our friend and gamekeeper since years. Rose knocked and a very happy looking Hagrid opened the door and welcomed the 7 of us in. The inside decoration hadn't changed at all, and so it was not the most agreeable to me. But at least it wasn't raining icy buckets like outside...

"Bad weather, eh?" Hagrid said, and we all sat down, soaked, to dry in front of the fire.

"But the muggle weather forecast says it should be summer-like next week." Dom pointed out.

"Does it work?" Albus asked. I could see from the others' quizzical looks that he wasn't the only one wandering.

"Well, it's usually only half precise when it comes to day-to-day or morning-afternoon forecasts, saying it will rain, just in case it does, and may be totally wrong but it works well on global weather for the week." I answer.

"OK. Would you like a drink?" Our host asked.

"Um... yes please."

I took tea with sugar and milk, and it was quite good. In fact, the only ones who didn't take tea were Maria and Scorp, they had taken hot chocolate and they seemed to like it too. I mean, who doesn't like a hot drink when it's cold and wet? Then, we discussed ordinary and plain subjects and I could feel the curiosity and impatience rising around me, and in me. When we stopped talking to take a sip of our drinks, Albus finally let the cat out of the bag. I don't know why _he_ had to do it, why we were all waiting for somebody else to talk, because we are all quite close to Hagrid, after last year, we all trust him... But I think Al was just more eager to know...

"Hagrid, do you know anything about that thing at lunch with Sorial?" he blurted. Hagrid frowned, but than took the kind of look which means: 'why do you ask _me_ questions? I'm not an encyclopaedia!', you know Dom takes it sometimes, but she always answers the question in the end, Rose too... (you're so nice! I know, we're awesome... –Rose and Dom)

"I really don't know much yeh know..." he answered.

"Well you know more than us, at least." I said.

"Not many people know what happened exactly' it's very strange..." he continued, picking up the used but empty cups and spoons to put them in the sink, helped by Marianne. "He had been quit' peculiar since a few days, but just like, very moody, overreacting, so his friends didn't suspect much, he's like every teen, bustin' a cable here or there (Axelle, you're like every teen!- Scorpius/ Shut up! Wait until I catch you!-Me) But then, before lunch, he was apparently really angry at one of his best friends when Pr Slughorn told him he hadn't been putting enough effort and commitment in his work this trimester, he lost it and came screamin' down the hall, like you saw..." he explained, his eyebrows knitted with concentration.

"How is he now?" Marianne asked, always caring...

"Well, he's perfectly gud physically, but mentally, he seems to have gone back in his early childhood: sometimes he's playing or babbling like a toddler, or gettin' so angry that Madam Pomfrey had to give him injections to calm him duwn, or just staring into nothin'ness fro hours. His parents, family, and close friends have come, but he seems not to recognise any of them..."

"Awww..." we all said, truly pitying them.

"That's all very mysterious." Arachno thought out loud.

"Yes, we have never heard of any diseases like that before, apart from after concussions, when you are amnesiac or stuff, which we have no record of with that student..." Hagrid continued "Madam Pomfrey said that if he was still like that after a week, they'd have to call experts from St Mungo's to make further tests..." he paused. "But you shouldn't worry about that kids, he'll be alright, they'll deal with it fine. Nuw, what are yeh plannin' on doin' this week end?"

"Well if the weather is this bad..." Dom started, throwing us a look which meant: 'Room of requirement?"

"It's James and Fred's first Hogsmeade visit tomorrow." Rose cut in.

"Ahhh!" Hagrid exclaimed

"Oh, that's right..." Maria admitted.

"He's so lucky!" I complained.

"Your turn will come Axie!" Albus said, laughing.

"Yes, but in the mean time..." I frowned.

"In the mean time, we've all got student-teachers meetings next week..." Dom pointed out.

We all bit our lips: we had forgotten that.

The weather turned amazing mid-morning of the next day and we played zombie tag as well as quidditch on the Hogwarts grounds. On Sunday, the planning of the student-teachers meetings by year were put up.

"Uh... we're on Thursday afternoon..." I commented, seeing the poster on the house notice board.

"It's by alphabetical order by last name, we all have to wait in a classroom to be called, and we pass one by one in front of all the teachers, like last year." Marianne read.

"And with my luck I'llbe in the last ones..." Albus scowled.

"It will be worse for Rose..." Dom pointed out.

"Or for the Zabinis..." Scorpius said, nudging Al in the ribs, copying what he had said at the sorting that year, knowing he had feelings for her. This remark stung Albus who walked away and sat down to start his homework, a thing he rarely does willingly. For some reason, it stung me too, I found out I did care... and stalked off as well.

"So touchy!" Scorp exclaimed. I saw so Dom and Mar smile a bit.

On Wednesday, I sat with my friends in the library, doing homework, as always. I had worked my way through a bit of potions, advanced my herbology essay and started to practice some transfiguration.

"Can you do it, Axelle, the transfiguration thing?" Maria asked me, annoyed.

"More or less..." I answered.

"You, Rose?" asked Dom.

"Well, if you consider the fact that my stone has a few legs..." she answered.

"Yeah, well I'm far from the stone which has legs..." Maria murmured, glancing at her beetle, laying desperately on his back. I stretched, not able to concentrate too much, knowing James or Fred was probably at that very moment, facing the circle of teachers, like a trial, not knowing what would happen. The minutes lingered and passed slowly, like the sand in a hour glass that's too slow to be precise.

Then, the boys barged in, the crazy boys as discrete as they can be, and Madam Pince screamed at them to 'be quiet and respect the others work.' They calmed down a bit and slumped down next to us.

"Why do you have to be always in the library? We'd like to scream our happiness to the world!" James whispered.

"Did it go well?" I asked, stressed.

"Yes, my friend, me and my dear James received compliments from nearly every teacher and only 2 or 3 remarks on chatty behaviour in class!" Fred exclaimed solemnly.

"That's so wonderful!" Maria exclaimed, hugging Fred tightly. "I must say I was worried for you... but I knew you wouldn't get told off, you've been very hard working, and you didn't get any detention up to today!"

"I'm so happy for you! I knew you could do it!" I said for my part.

"Which teacher turned you in?" Arachno asked, curious for thought, and told us:

"Pr Trelawny, though I quickly assured her I 'd be soon enough leaving her class, Pr Binns, Pr Slughorn and even Pr Thomas!"

"Oh, for me it was the arithmancy teacher who took me down... as well as Binns of course and-"

That what too much, Madam Pince ordered us, full of fury, to exit the library on the spot.

"We were planning too, Madam Pince, we're so very sorry..." Dominika told her confusedly.

Once outside, I was nearly dancing of joy, as Dom, Rose, Albus, Scorpius and Arachno congratulated the boys too.

"That's something to celebrate!" Rose said brightly.

"Thanks Rose, that's nice!" Fred and James retorted, glaring for fun at their star-student cousin.

"But you should be careful, Rose, at the pace they're going, they'll have a better end of year percentage than you!" I laughed.

"You wanna bet? Rose is heavy challenge..." Arachno joked back.

"Hey! We're not joining your war for best student in a thousands year guys!" Fred warned us.

"We're not in a war!" Maria retorted.

"Anyway, are we going to stay here all day or are we going to 'celebrate', like we said?" Albus asked. Rose was about to say something about homework left but Scorpius drowned it in a loud cough and I nudged her in the ribs.

"Yeah, homework's done anyhow." Arachno dropped in, as Rose quickly turned happy of the idea.

"We could go outside, the park is pretty under all those dried autumn leaves, and the weather's not bad, and we haven't been outside since a while..." Scorpius suggested, before constructing a good list of reasons (hey! Like in argumentative or discursive essays! Yeah, whatever...).

The idea was agreed by everyone and I have to say it was a good choice! We played on the huge grounds for ages, running or playing (catch or something) in a thick layer of beautiful leaves.

"These are oaks and maple trees, look at the leaves!" Dom told us, our newly elected expert in trees.

"Autumn is not like this in Africa, is it Maria?" Fred asked.

"That's because there is no _autumn_ there!" I shot back.

"Yeah, Axelle's right, there are no real seasons where I used to live, there are no real trees with real leaves either! Nature here amazes me! I thought I was dreaming, last year, with all the leaves everywhere, there are so many colours, so many shades!" she answered, her eyes gleaming.

"Help I am drowning!" Scorpius shouted, breaking this poetic instant.

"Well, you shouldn't have jumped in that stack of leaves, right?" James teased him.

"And you should have learned to swim!" Arachno added cheekily.

Just as we pulled him out of the pile, Dom's phone rang (I recognise her ringtone out of a million of crappy ringtones, but the best ringtone EVER is Dom's mum's: it's ' I'm sexy and I know it'/ Hey! You have no right to reveal my personal life!- Dom / Hahahaha - the others...)

"Hey! There _is_ network here! I must remember that exact spot- Oh wait, there isn't anything anymore..." she paced around for a short while but soon gave up.

"There will never be any network here, lost in the middle of Scotland..." I said. "I bet it was half on purpose too, it must arrange McGonnagal to have us cut from the world..." Our wizard friends raised their eyebrows.

"Oh!" Marianne exclaimed suddenly, getting her camera out. "This reminds me... I wanted to take pictures of all of you, of all of us actually, so we can remind ourselves how we looked as kids... when we're old..."

So we spent the rest of the afternoon taking pictures of ourselves in front of the castle, the lake, the gardens, the forest..., in a line, in a circle with our heads in the middle (like, lying on the grounds our heads in the center, you see?), our hands/feet in the circle, only the boys, then the girls, then all the girls on the boys shoulders, then making peace and love signs, making funny then super serious faces...

It was loads of fun, but also quite a challenge: we had to take each picture 20 times, firstly because all the people who had electronic devices which could take pictures (me and Dom) insisted on having some too and secondly because someone would always find a way to move, close his eyes or simply say: "Oh my! Look at my face, we can't keep that one!" "Ew... I look awful! Please guys let's delete it and take another one! I beg you!" ... So it took a while.

At the moment when we had no more ideas of original poses we could take (Except James and Fred who were pretending to be Hollister models...- Maria/ More or less successfully- Albus/ That's kind of true- Me. Though it is true that James is quite handsome and - Me again/ Different tastes...- Rose), Arachno looked at his watch and exclaimed:

"Blimey! It's dinner in half an hour!"

"Yes!" Guess who... The boys of course.

"This photo session got me really hungry after all!" Scorpius said.

"We need to bring our bags up and take our showers!" Dom reminded us.

"Oh yes! And I have to post my letter after that!" Marianne added. "See you all at dinner!" she gave Fred a hug when 'nobody was looking' and I was prepared to run off with all the others when James caught my hand and told me:

"Can you stay for a little while... um, me and Fred wanted to go somewhere, but it'd be better for me if you came too... if you don't mind, it won't take long..." I nodded, seeing his uneasy face.

"I'll shower after dinner guys! And I'll drop in the common room in a while OK?" I called to my classmates. Dom answered with the thumbs up from the top of the stairs. James took my hand, and by their looks, I could tell exactly where they were planning to go. I sighed, as we started to walk there:

"Why do you have to make yourself sad when you are most happy?" They both shrugged, and soon we entered silently the Hogwarts cemetery.

It was the place were most headmasters laid, though the 4 founders were absent from it, with a place of honour for Dumbledore with his white marble case contrasting with the austere tombstones, all decorated anyhow with pretty flowers, even the oldest. There also rested normal people, heroes of the battle for Hogwarts, students victims of epidemics or catastrophes (Moaning Myrtle, Cedric Digorry, Collin...) when the families had thought it more appropriate for them to stay for ever in the last place they had breathed in.

James hand tightened on mine.

"You're so brave guys..." I said. We slowly took place on the bench opposite the tomb with the freshly engraved mention: "Collin Creevey II, 2003-2016" under the name of his uncle "Collin Creevey", who had died in the battle in 1998.

"That name in cursed." James croaked, letting go of my hand to put his head in his palms. It was a great change from the afternoon atmosphere. I was very uncomfortable, I couldn't really grieve Collin, I hadn't known him that well, but seeing my friends so sad... I'll never forget that day, he was so innocent!

"We...we miss you Collin." I said finally, breaking the silence again. Then, the two boys looked up and started one after the other saying things to Collin:

"Yeah... we miss you... It's all very unfair that we have fun when you're not here, so the least is to come and see you..."

"But you'd be happy to know us happy so... especially about work, you were the best student of us three, always were..."

"We miss you and no one here will forget you, or stop loving you..."

"You don't need to tell him that, he knows..." I whispered.

"But we know you're well now, where ever you are." We stayed there a short while. Just at the moment I thought everything was calm and peaceful again, Fred fell to his knees, sobbing in his hands.

"Fred..." James said, putting a hand on his shoulder. It was really a sad scene, a that point I was on the verge of tears too. I heard Fred murmur, as he slowly calmed down:

"We'll take revenge for Collin... I promise." It was useless to tell him that revenge wasn't a good thing at that point.

"Fred, I can call Maria if you want... It would be better for you..." I said quietly.

"But awful for her. Don't. I'm just fine." He answered. "You can leave guys, I'll linger around here for a bit." He stood up and began to make his way to another tomb, where the man he was named after laid. Though he hadn't known him, I can understand how touching it would be to see the tomb of your uncle. Me and James exited the cemetery but I stopped after the gate. I asked James

"Feel better?" He nodded and I continued. "But we're not going to leave him there by himself are we? It get's creepy as night falls..." I told James.

"We can wait a bit here."

A few minutes passed, as Fred came out as well, he seemed calm, even happy.

"Oh, you didn't have to wait... Thanks anyway." He smiled.

"Wow, we're nearly going to be late for lunch!" James said.

"Hey! Let's make a race, we'll get there faster, and I'll win..." Fred suggested.

"I take the bet!" I answered. In the end we did run to the school door, but I held James' end and we all reached it at the same time.

"I was being nice!" Fred told us.

"Yeah right!" James joked back. As the boys pushed the door, I let go of James' hand, I mean, we don't want to attract gossips, right?

PS: (You put a PS? What the heck? Why not put 'yours sincerely' or 'to whom it may concern' while you're at it?- Albus/ I do what I want, you have a problem with me being a little original Al?- Me/ I agree with Axelle, it's quite a fun idea...- Marianne)

So anyway.

PS: Our student-teachers meetings on the next day passed very well. All of us good very good comments and we were all very happy (yes, we're just a bunch of goody-two-shoes...).

For my part, Pr Binns said I was very changing, hard working on some subject, chatty and totally uninterested on others, Pr Longbottom said I was a little too cheery at times and Pr Sinistra on the contrary sleepy at times (though she understood, as her classes were at the dead of night)... Though all teachers said my homework were very good, as were my grades, and that I was a very talented pupil. Pr Thomas, our main teacher, concluded by saying that if I continued like this, he could sing my praises at the mid-year main teacher-parent meetings.

Yeah, so all was good, calm and peaceful (well the sort of calm that you get at school anyway, with work). But it was a piece of calm sea before the storms...


	6. The Darkest Night

Chapter VI: The Darkest night

Dominika's P.O.V.

"That's impossible! You're not serious. Not James!" Axelle cried out. Since Hagrid told us about the weird sickness nothing really happened. Until this day. It was a Sunday afternoon. Halloween.

"Wake up! It's Halloween! We're eating in History of Magic's classroom! The Great Hall's being prepared. It's going to be something great this year! I know it!" Axe was jumping on my bed, and in no time I had to give in. I sat up, and yawned.

"Axelle. It's S-U-N-D-A-Y. Sunday. We do not wake up at eight on Sundays." I grunted as I chose a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

"Oh, come on. It's an exception. We'll meet with everyone on the grounds this afternoon."

"And what are we going to do before that?" I asked, still half asleep.

"Well, I thought we could practice some more our spells in Room of Requirement. Just for the fun of it." Only then did I see Marianne. She was sitting on the bed next to mine, until now, in silence. She looked happy, but there was something in her eyes that seemed odd.

"Hi. Are… um… you all right?" I asked her. She nodded and said a simple 'yes', but I didn't fully believe her. It hurt to see that she was hiding something, but well, it was her choice whether or not to tell her secrets.

I entered the bathroom and changed quickly. When I went out, the two of my friends were talking, and when they saw me, they stood up and we headed downstairs.

The route down the corridors went fast. Not many people were up, and we didn't meet anyone. In the classroom that served now for Ravenclaw canteen we saw some fifth years, but didn't pay attention to them. We chose each a sandwich and a fruit, took a juice, three glasses and went upstairs again - to the seventh floor. We made sure nobody was nearby and entered the room of requirement.

It was smaller than usual. There was only one shelve inside, a small sofa, but there were tons of small pillows, several mannequins and other sorts of things that one could use as targets. I took one pillow in my hand. It was the softest thing I've ever touched. I turned round only to see Marianne reading some book and Axelle organizing her 'battlefield'.

I decided to join Mar on the sofa and wished for a small coffee table. I prepared the breakfast and left it there. I wasn't hungry yet, so I just picked up a random book and sat down. It was talking about magical artefacts. Curious, I started reading. For about ten minutes no one said anything. I was reading about tumbleroses, gems that could be used as healing potions, although they used one's energy to work and could kill a very weakened person instead of helping him.

At last, Axelle started her training. It was hard to concentrate with her screaming out the spells, and in no time Marianne stood up and said.

"It's useless. Let's make a… uh… truel? You know, duel for the three of us?"

"It might be cool." I said.

"YEAH!" Axelle exclaimed, as always, excited. We wished for everything except the table and our food to disappear and positioned ourselves. We counted from ten to one and before I was able to open my mouth the first spell was already running towards me. I dodged and said: "Rictusempra." I didn't hear anyone laugh so I added "Densaugeo". The fight went on and on.

I could see that we all had at least five bruises each and Axelle's hair was a mess, but nobody seemed in a much better state than the others. I felt myself tire more and more, and started to regret that I didn't eat my breakfast when I still had time, but didn't give up. We would have probably fought till we couldn't open our mouths anymore if the door didn't open. We turned round at once, and pointed our wands at the newly arrived people.

"Wow. I knew we would find you here, but I didn't expect we would find you in pieces." Rose smiled.

As she entered, Albus, Arachno and Scorpius came in too and the room became the usual self in all its parts but the coffee table and our meal. We had to look really weird, because they were smirking like mad, and looked as if they had just seen the most amusing thing in their lives.

"Well, I guess our 'truel''s over." I stated.

"What's a truel?" Albus looked at us weirdly.

"Better don't ask, mate." Arachno said in a low voice.

Axelle put that look of hers and was about to say something when Marianne took us by arms and got us into a bathroom that appeared out of nowhere.

When I saw myself, I almost fainted. My face was horrifying. No worse than the other twos', but not better either. I looked everywhere for a make-up case, and found one under the towels. I put it on the washbasin and took out a hairbrush (Don't ask me why there was one- I don't know either). Half an hour - We needed that much to cover everything up. I never liked make-up. I didn't use it at all, but this was an exception. I think I never used this much powder in my life. Not even later, when putting tons of products on my face became a routine.

"Done." I finally said. "Remember not to duel before learning how to heal or at least hide the… side effects." I heard the other two chuckle. "But I'm serious!" I said.

"Don't worry Dom. We know. It's just the way you speak sometimes…" Marianne started.

"… is amusing." Axelle finished. They both grinned, and there was nothing left for me to do but to smile in return. When wecame back, our friends were sitting around a table, with three free places.

"We thought that something might have kidnapped you." Rose said when she saw us.

"Well, we had to cover ourselves up. You wouldn't be able to recognize us otherwise." Marianne explained.

"We wouldn't care." Albus said. Seeing our faces, Scorpius completed his friend's sentence:

"We're too hungry to care. That's what he meant." I felt my stomach twitch at the word hungry. It's at this moment that I realized how badly I needed food. I haven't eaten for…

"What time is it exactly?" I asked.

"Midday precisely." Rose said. I only stared. I couldn't believe we didn't feel anything after such a long duel and that we still had the energy to walk. Almost without a word we sat down, and started stuffing the lunch into us. Not a very French way, but hey, I wasn't all-French after all!

"So, what you've been doing all that time?" Mar asked.

"Well," Rose answered. "I've been in the library when about an hour ago the three here came to me and started talking about all those things we could do outside, while they didn't even start their work. Unfortunately, it started raining, and we couldn't get out. That's when I asked whereyou were," she made a gesture towards Axelle, Marianne and I. "And of course I learned that they were convinced you were with me. That's why we started to look for you… and found you here." I nodded, my mouth full.

"So what will we do next?" Axe asked as she swallowed.

"I was hoping you could tell us."

"Well, we still have an hour to start getting ready to get outside. Is it still raining?"

"No. I don't think so. It wasn't anything too heavy."

"Ok… I guess…"

"…No homework. We pass our lives doing it." I winced. I couldn't agree more with Albus for once. But it wasn't our fault the teachers liked it so much! Besides, it was the very least minimum we had to do. But this was a special day. It was a free day.

"We could… play… Exploding snap! I love that game!" Rose proposed.

"Why not?" I said. The rest nodded. We summoned the house elves and asked them to clean up. We thanked them, and although I couldn't stop comparing them to slaves… if they liked doing that and weren't mistreated… I guess that wasn't as bad as being a real slave.

A game of exploding snap appeared on the table. It was now round, and we were sitting all around it. In no time we were completely drawn into the game. It was no surprise then, when somebody exclaimed.

"Ooops, We were supposed to be downstairs five minutes ago." We looked at each other, and sprinted out of the room, leaving everything behind. If we needed anything, we would find it there… hopefully.

"Hi guys, sorry we're late!" Axelle exclaimed as we approached Fred and JP. They were waiting for us in the same place as usual, but somehow I felt that something was wrong. When they turned our way, I saw that they weren't alone.

"Hello there. Look what we have here. Our teacher finally found some time for his family." Fred said.

"I'm not really a part of your family, Freddie." Teddy replied.

"It doesn't change the fact that you are morelike a bro to me than a teacher to the majority of us." JP added.

"Yeah." The blue-haired man nodded. When he saw me, he got a weird look on his face. "Dominika, did you… have any… unfortunate experiences since the last time in the Hospital wing?" His question took me off guard.

"Once or twice… but I controlled it rather quickly…" I took a deep breath. "Is everything all right? Do you know what's going on? Am I-"

"-going to die? Is she going to get ugly? Will her leg fall off? Her nose? Her Brain? – no, sorry. Dom without a brain is as James without Quidditch in his mind." Fred started kidding around acting as if he actually cared.

"Ha, ha, ha. So funny." My face had to be really hilarious, because everyone burst out laughing. "Ok, ok. Now. Why did you ask?"

"Oh, it's nothing, it's just that Mrs. Pomfrey got the results of your blood tests. And asked me to tell you." This time, everyone stayed silent, and as nobody said anything, he continued.

"You are a metamorphmagus. It is rather weird that your talent shows only now but it may have something to do with your bloodline. Also, you are the first of the muggle-borns to be metamorphmagus. It usually goes in generations, but well, sometimes apparently it appears out of nowhere."

I only stood there with my mouth wide open. I couldn't believe it. When I thought about it I couldn't believe in anything that concerned my life; when looked at more precisely, it sounded even quite stupid. A Polish-French girl gets a letter from Hogwarts for no other reason but that she can actually do magic, something she always dreamed to do, she then learned that her two 100% French friends were going with her to the same school (and not to Beauxbatons). Furthermore, she was best friends with the most amazing wizards ever, saved a centaur, and she was a metamorphmagus. What if she wasn't magical? Would she be a metamorphmugullus? Thoughts like this came up to my mind and wouldn't leave me. Not even after we changed the subject.

It was a warm day, and soon somebody (veeeery intelligent) convinced his (veeeery intelligent) friends that throwing their (sooooo booooring) female friends into the lake would surely cheer them up. No surprise then that at one point, suddenly, out of nowhere, I found myself in the air, not being able to move. I was wise enough to shut my mouth (not like a certain blond, hyper friend of mine who had the time to open her mouth) before we were released.

The water was cold. And when I say cold, I mean the kind of water that pierces as if a thousand needles were being put into your skin, all at once. I barely held the air inside my lungs. I moved the fastest I could. I kicked, made circles with my arms, was pulling myself up, towards the surface.

The first thing I felt when I reached the top, was the air. It felt as if I was a block of concrete ice. I forced myself to go on swimming. The boys were gone except for Teddy who was giving a towel to Maria (don't ask me where he got it or what it had been not so long time ago.)

I was the second to arrive. My teeth clattering, it took a while before I could ask:

"Wh-where… arrrrrrrrre t-they-y?" Teddy only shook his head.

"I don't know. They rat as fast as you landed in the water. I was too busy trying to find something that could warm you up when you get out that I didn't pay attention to their movements. I might have had even stopped them in time if only I was suspecting this… they still all got minus five points for their houses… Oh, good these two are alright too." I looked towards the lake. Axelle and Rose were swimming towards us. My fellow Ravenclaw friend didn't look well. She seemed sick, and as fast as she reached the shore, she vomited. Rose seemed a little better. When they were under towels, Axelle muttered. "I'm going to kill them." But Teddy didn't hear her. Or at least it looked as if he didn't.

Ravenclaw common room was empty. Everyone was enjoying the trip to hogsmeade, or, if they weren't allowed yet, the nice weather outside. It was easy therefore to smuggle Rose into the Ravenclaw tower. We were drinking chocolate Teddy made the house elves give us. It was nice to sit next to a fireplace, and feel our toes again; really, if you haven't experienced not feeling a part of you, then you will never understand this.

"It's really beautiful." Rose finally broke the silence.

"What? Sorry I didn't listen." I said.

"It's beautiful, the common room I mean."

"Yeah. I love it too. Not that Gryffindor's not impressive either, but here the light is great to read, while at Gryffindor's it has always that honey shade. Not that it doesn't have a certain charm… it's just…" Marianne started.

"Yeah. It's not the same. Still, I find my common room the best… Axelle, what do you think?"

"Huh? Sorry I didn't listen."

"You were talking to your conscience again?" I joked.

"Actually, I was thinking about something a little more serious for once."

"Wow. You and serious? It's like water and fire- no offense." Marianne said.

"None taken. I was thinking about a prank we could put on our dearest friends. I mean, they put up an interesting one, so I though…"

"I get it." I said.

"Challenge accepted?" Rose added. Marianne smirked when Axelle nodded with a small smile.

I inhaled deeply. Yes indeed. Challenge accepted_. They have no idea what they put themselves into. _I thought.

The Great Hall was filled with students. The feast was the greatest one since the year after the Great War when the entire world has been celebrating (officially). This year not only we found the sadistic pumpkins or bones on the floor, but Thousands of bats were attacking several students from time to time until they finally caught one of them that would change into a snack or a toy… or a dungbomb (for Gwen, who threw it at some Hufflepuffs when they weren't watching. The smell almost immediately vanished thanks to some charms, but they didn't look happy).

But the best part was that after we have eaten, all the tables were sent away with food and the party began. Some band changed into muggle costumes of vampires and was playing all sorts of music from Rock to Pop (muggle and magical, and I was almost surprised when I heard 'Highway to Hell' and 'Dance with the Devil', which isn't known by many people). They were playing 'Who's that Witch' (hem hem, so obvious- Rose) when I realized that Marianne was trying to get my attention. Right. Boys. I thought. We found Rose and then Axelle who had been talking with Fred, and we asked him where the others were. We, of course, said that we didn't mind the prank and just wanted to show them something special the teachers meant to show later. Fred being Fred, he told us where to find them, and even came with us, so as we got out of the Great Hall thirteen minutes later (and 40 seconds! – Axelle; really, we don't care – Dom; yes we do, be precise! Jk - Mar) nobody was missing.

"So where's the special thing?" JP asked.

"In classroom 23. You know, the one they don't use anymore…" I said. I prayed that they wouldn't suspect anything.

The corridors were empty and we walked in silence. From time to time one of us whispered something very interesting about the surprise. When we opened the door, a huge cage stood in the middle of the room, its door open.

"Hey, what exactly did you mean when you said surprise?" Scorpius said, as he turned round to look at us. Only we were no longer there. We ran the fastest we could to safety. They looked at us uncertain of the meaning of all this, and decided to follow us. Unfortunately for them, it was already too late.

The beast attacked. Before they knew it, they were all lying on the ground the air knocked out of their lungs they barely recovered, when it came on them again. Soon Albus was covered in its saliva, glued to the floor, Scorpius was twitching as if somebody was tickling him or a little animal was walking all around on him, Arachno was in a weird position as if he didn't know if he should puke or not, and Fred and JP were both covered in clay-like stuff that looked so unnatural I was really happy I wasn't on their place. When all the boys were dealing with their 'pain' (making some curious noises), the beast felt they had learnt the lesson and would no longer try to approach its cage. It slowly went back inside, and sat down. And that's when we realized something was wrong. As Rose closed the cage, JP started to shake violently. Hagrid didn't tell us it could cause anything like that when we asked him if we could borrow one of his creatures to 'take it for a walk'. A stupid thought came across my mind: Is he allergic or simply cold?

But he didn't shiver for long. All of sudden, he looked at us, and sprang forward… on four paws. He had a wild, crazy look in his eyes. He was imitating sounds that were meant to be probably the barking of a dog, but it came out more like a wolf's howl. We stood there petrified. He launched himself at us. All magic abandoned me. I wasn't able to do anything but to duck. I was almost too slow. Axelle, too shocked to move, was hit straight in the chest and fell on the ground.

It seemed to wake her up, because she yelled colloshoo, pointing her wand towards her best friend/ boyfriend. James' legs immediately glued to the floor he couldn't walk and was now yelling in some unknown language. We couldn't move. This was all impossible. It was not happening.

"What in the name of Merlin-! Poppy! There's another one here. Call Wilkie. We'll need help to transport him. Children, please get out of here before things get more serious." Professor McGonagall said as she saw JP in the middle of the room after she burst into it.

"But, professor, what's going on?!" Rose cried out.

"Your cousin has been affected by the sickness, what else? We'll need to transport him into the Hospital Wing and call his parents." And she added under her breath. "What a day. First, Cornwell, then Koliini, now Potter… This is getting serious."

"NO!" A shriek so desperate it pierced has been heard. "NO! That's impossible! You're not serious! Not James! It can't be James!" It was Axelle, who just wouldn't give up. She ran towards him, and yelled. "James! It's me! Axelle! Do you remember me? You have to! James? James!" He only looked at her as if he saw her for the first time in his life. Then, suddenly, his eyebrows twitched, and he punched her straight in the stomach. She stumbled backwards and returned her dinner, while JP yelled and started wailing.

"Enough. Go. I don't want you here. You'll only get hurt. Go see madam Pomfrey. You lot, go with her. She'll need help." Marianne nodded, and we took Axelle each by one arm. She looked terrible. Her eyes were swollen, her face ghostly grey, but the worst were her eyes. I've never seen them that empty, Axelle was always full of energy no matter if she was sad, angry or happy. Now, she did not talk, she moved as if in another dimension, and seemed lost.

"Come on. He'll be ok."

"No he won't. They didn't find the cure yet."

"Because they didn't have much time. Magicians are powerful they'll think of something. Let's go."

And that was it. Halloween, 31st of October. The Halloween we've never forgot. The Halloween that made our lives a living Hell for weeks. Finally, the Halloween that showed us no more than a glimpse of our future problems. And believe me, these things were more complicated then just more victims; much more…


	7. Secrets

Chapter VII: Secrets …

_Marianne's P.O.V._

"Have you finished your summary on the foundation of the chamber of secrets Marianne?" Dominika asked. It was the beginning of winter, a cold, rainy day of November and we were in the Ravenclaw common room working on our History of Magic project on the chamber of secrets after our daily homework. We would be presenting it on Friday -four days later- and I had nearly fainted when Pr Binns set it for us. The prospect of presenting in front of the whole class gave me goose bumps and cut my breath. It had only gotten better at the end of the last week when Axelle had told we would learn exciting stuff and have access to the forbidden part of the library, when Dominika had planned to give me a small and easy part and when Albus has easily pointed out that everybody would be sleeping anyway "what do you want, it's our sleeping pattern!" he had even added.

"Yes. Yes I have." I answered

"Good. Can you copy it in black ink over here please?"

"Sure." I started neatly to copy down my text onto the large poster of parchment that was laid out on the table. I was dearly longing for the time Axelle would declare: "Oh! It's time for quidditch practice, let's go Mar!"

"OK, so we put the picture of the entrance of the chamber here, next to the recent event text." Axe said.

"Yeah. And that gravure from a book of the middle ages opposite." I continued.

"We are only missing a few of the main text and one or two picture." Dominika noticed happily. "I'll start sticking the border on." The work continued for a few minutes. Sometimes we were working on the setting up and craft of the poster and at others we were skimming through thick books and taking notes or copying pages. After a while, Axelle stopped working and started to stare at the picture on the right, the one with the entrance of the chamber.

"I can't believe that Hermione, Harry and Ron thought about the entrance being there, it's kind of random." She said after a moment.

"And I can't believe Harry gave that away to the press." Dom said bitterly. "Now the heir won't have to search long for it."

"They'll have to search on how to open it, wouldn't they? That's a mystery." I thought aloud.

"Harry didn't give that away to the press did he…" Axelle stated, glaring at Dominika, who seemed to revise her judgement on Harry and said:

"Yeah, he could have probably… sold the information. Or just said it to his children, but you never know, it might put the school in danger so he didn't say a word. That's a mystery, I've been to that place a few times and I just can't see how…"

"James and Albus really don't know." Axe agreed, "I think some teachers might know, like McGonnagall."

"Actually," I said, "If the heir was here, I bet he would think the way in is obvious. It'd be like an instinct." A heavy silence fell.

"Oops! We need to go to quidditch practice Mar, hurry!"

"Alright! Love you Dom, see you!" I shouted to her and sped off through the door with my heavy bag equipment on my shoulder.

As we emerged into the open, we got nearly knocked out by the torrents of rain which were pouring down from the sky.

"Gosh what is this weather?" Axelle complained. "Are we supposed to play quidditch in this rain?" I hardly heard her under the rumbling and roaring of the rain. We crossed the grounds with great difficulty as they were nothing but a sea of cold mud. The wind was blowing I could hardly press forward and our faces were battered by the water. Reaching the changing rooms, we pushed the door opened and fell through closing the door behind and collapsing on the floor, soaking and desperate. We turned around to see everyone laughing, but they were as wet as we were.

"I guess you had a hard time crossing the grounds too…" Lysander commented as he dried his hair.

"There's a hell of a storm out there!" Tina, a 4th year girl who was a chaser in the team at that time, exclaimed.

"Don't swear Tina!" Ryan, a 5th year guy who liked to get her angry, spoke cheekily.

"Ah! You swear three times more than I do! And this isn't even swearing!" She shot back. .

Bran and Pyrus, the reserves of the team, exploded into laughs. The captain, a tall 7th year girl with curly brown hair who was Tina's sister, entered from her office and exclaimed irritated:

"Stop fooling around everyone!"

"Oh, she had a hard time crossing the grounds too apparently…" Josh, a guy with an affro who was Ryan's best friend, noticed.

"Oh Ceecee! We're not going to play by this weather are we?" Tina winced at her sister.

"Well, McGonnagall agreed that we could try the new waterproof- transparent roof today." She answered happily. "Isn't that great? The first team to try out the roof!"

"Great if it works…" Josh pointed out moodily.

"Don't be pessimistic Josh!" Axelle retorted.

"The thing is that it makes the pitch a lot smaller, it's not really that high." Lysander explained.

"Never mind! At least we would be soaked to death!" I said positively.

Cecile (that's the captain) opened cautiously the doors onto the stadium and stuck her head out.

"Well, it looks like it's working…" she said, impressed.

"Brooms every one! Josh, Bryan, bats! Axelle, Marianne or Tina, balls. I'll get my whistle." She came back and strode onto the pitch. I looked above me, we couldn't see the roof but not a drop came in and we could hear the loud drumming of the rain on it.

"We'll make two teams like last time! First warm up! Three times around the pitch, then make passes in a circle! Right, kick off!"

I zoomed off and felt the same freedom as I always did. Along with everyone I flew around the field at a reasonably fast speed which still made my hair fly in every direction. I held on tight to my broom and press the weight on forward a bit to speed.

"OK! Under and over the bars please and then lateral zigzags between the cones, twice round!" Celine shouted and she flicked her wand towards the walls of the stadium. Under and over was my favourite thing, a bit like a roller coaster. We then made passes in a circle and I missed none for my throws or my receives, I was so glad because last time I was so slow and it whizzed past me so I had to get it and I everyone sighed and complained.

"Right, let's make teams. Me keeper, there is only one goal for the two teams and I have to stop both, Axelle seeker."

"Why don't we make a girl-boy match today?" Tina proposed.

"Yeah so we can beat you to ashes!" Bran said enthusiastically and Tina stuck her tongue out at him.

"That's a good idea! Blue team: Tina, Sansa and Marianne plus Ryan as beater-"

"Why me in the girls' team?" He protested.

"No arguing! Red team, Lysander, Bran and Pyrus. Put your colours on." She paused "Girls have the quaffle first."

"Why?" Pyrus asked offended.

"No questions, I'm the boss here!" she joked back.

"Hey! In 'the girls' there is _me_ too please!" Ryan pointed out, desperate.

"Release of the balls in … 3… 2... 1… !" Cecile shouted and then blew her whistle.

Tina had the ball, she race to the middle of the field (that's when you play on a half field, they do that in muggle sports too) and then back towards the goals but got blocked by Lysander , she spun around but as she fell nose to nose to Lysander threw me the ball from the side. I caught it with two hands and then put it under my arm while I zoomed towards the post. I swerved to avoid Ryan who had just hit a Bludger so hard it made a loud sound as it whizzed past me and then passed Pyrus who was following me. I forced a bit forward ready to turn abruptly to brake and then shoot the ball through a hoop. Suddenly, as I held the quaffle in one hand ready to let it go, Bran appeared from underneath and snatched it from me. Regaining myself from that surprising attack in half a second, I darted up (so did Sansa who had come to my help) to try to intercept the ball which Bran had just thrown but it was already in Lysander's hands and he started to fly to the middle line.

I think I'm not going to tell you how the match went in so much detail throughout. I'll just tell you that, first, we were really behind, 40- 10 for the boys. But then we went up and the game finished we were 50- 60. I was really proud of myself because, even though we didn't win the match, I had scored 2 of the 5 goals.

"We beat you! We beat you!" Josh and Pyrus were singing in the changing rooms.

"Yes but not by far!" I protested.

"Yes! We went up in the last twenty minutes we were nearly the same score!" Tina continued. For once, Ryan supported Tina and said:

"It's because the guys in your team were older!"

"That doesn't mean anything!" Bran shouted back.

"Does!" Sansa exclaimed.

"Does not!" All the boys from the other team laughed.

"Guys! We are a TEAM! We are UNITED, we are ON THE SAME SIDE! Hello!" Ceecee called as she came in.

"yes, how are we supposed to beat Gryffindor in 3 weeks if there are conflicts in the team?" Axelle asked.

"It's not really a conflict!" Lysander said.

"Anyway, you all played very well today guys! Well done!" Ceecee chanted happily. "It'll be a great game!"

"Yeah, except James won't be there." Axelle moaned.

"Ohhh. He'll be OK soon Axe." I said, though I knew that, though all the teachers were doing their bests, the cause of the disease hadn't been found yet, and they were not at all close. (It's always good to be optimistic! - that's my mum…)

"Right, the three girls now." Pr Binns said happily, dismissing a group of from the front of the class. I stood up with difficulty and walked stiffly to the board. I felt a little better as soon as I glanced at the class, 'sleeping pattern' all right! And they were faces I knew, those people I knew were nice and wouldn't laugh at me for the rest of my life. "Right, "the chamber of secrets, what a burning topic!" he emphasised.

"Yes, quite Professor." Dominika replied. (Teacher's pet! Like Diane, Goody two shoes! : ) I am only a Goody One shoe- Amber) He waved his wand and our poster unrolled itself and pinned itself to the board.

"Beautiful work!" I heard whispering in the class, students were pulling their neighbours out of sleep so they would listen: it was a subject that deeply interested everyone and we had fought to get, I need to add. "Sh, shh, shhh! Class! So will start us off? Well go on Miss Mausset." Axe gave the introduction and I knew that right after that was my part, I gulped.

"Part 1, the founding of the chamber, by Marianne."

"Ummmm… Hi." I said awkwardly, the boys were smiling at us from the back and were encouraging me on. "Right. The… the chamber of secret was founded, or so says … the legend, by Salazar Slytherin." My legs were numb and my throat dry. I looked at Dom who smiled at me, but I couldn't go on.

"Yes?" Pr Binns said, questioning my silence.

"Come on Marianne." Axelle whispered. I gulped, and suddenly the image of Fred smiling in the sun, came to my mind. It was strange, I had never seen him this way, with sun and sand behind, he also looked… older somehow. This imazing picture boosted my confidence and I moved on.

"When the school was founded, the 4 tounders, I mean, founders! Founders… sorry! were always agreeing and were very happy to, together, bring up the next generation of wizards. But, as time passed, Salazar Slytherin became a bit distant with the others and quarrels started to emerge." The class was suspended to my words, though they all knew the story probably by heart, it was amazing. "Slytherin wanted to be more selective on young wizards entering Hogwarts; he wanted to keep only those who have an apparently purer blood. Before he left the school forever, Slytherin built a secret chamber inside the castle, with a monster, we know it today to be a Basilisk, in this chamber. You can… hem… see the chamber on this picture here. Only the true Slytherin heir was said to be able to enter the chamber and control the monster, and when he would do that, all wizards who were not from wizard lines of ancestors were to be eliminated and Slytherins' plan would be complete." I finished. "Well… that's it." Everybody clapped, I hope it wasn't just to be polite. Dom stepped forward.

"Part 2, from the founding to 1942." She started. "Since its founding, the room was lost, unvisited and unheard of for hundreds of years. Several headmasters tried to find the chamber of secrets in order to protect their students but it was in vain. After a while, the story of the chamber was qualified as a legend and forgotten about. There may have been other openings during this period but with no real proof or consequences. Until…" she paused, knowing she was announcing dreadful events. "But, in 1942, a 6th or 7th year student called Tom Riddle opened the chamber for good. He had just found out about the fact he was the heir of Slytherin. He had also extreme views on blood purity, during the year he opened the chamber a few times and let the basilisk out. A basilisk's stare will kill a human being, or just petrify him if it is seen through another object. You can see a picture of it there (she pointed at a picture on the poster). The monster murdered a young muggle-born girl that night." She said gravely, I think I felt her shiver as well. "Tom Riddle blamed the opening onto another student and the monster was thought for long to be an acromantula brought up by this student. The scandal filled the whole wizard society, the student got unjustly expelled and Tom Riddle soon became the one who is known today as the terrible Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard of all times." She finished, and everybody clapped as well as Pr Binns, she beamed and moved back as Axelle came forward.

"Part 3, the most recent events. In 1993, strange events started to take place in the school, messages on the walls, blood, petrified students and animals, danger of deaths… The teachers and the headmaster tried by every way to stop these attacks, but it seemed impossible and the school was on the verge of shutting down. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger (everyone turned to Rose and Albus who were quite pink on the cheeks and smiling.), 3 friends who were at that time in second year and who were to become famous later on or were already well known, started to investigate on the subject. They had only one word to help them: chamber and continued the search around this theme. It was only at the moment of the crisis that the three discovered the way into the chamber; the entrance is on this picture. Along with their DADA teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, Ron and Harry entered the chamber but were soon separated by a wall of stone, their teacher having lost his memory, young Harry continued into the passages towards the chamber, where Tom Riddle teenage soul was awaiting him. His soul had taken possession through a diary of a 1st year student, Ginny Weasley and he had controlled her into releasing the monster and writing messages on the walls. Harry destroyed the Basilisk and Tom Riddle 's horcrux." She looked at Albus who was being stared at by all the students, and who seemed overwhelmed by this attention. "The chamber was never opened again and the headmasters since are keeping close watching to this particular room of the castle." She stopped and looked around to admire her applause, ah Axelle! Hasn't changed!

"Well done you girls, very thorough work, good detail, attention grabbing text, good picture and sources to support… I'll say it will be and O! What do you think class?" There was a chorus of excites 'Yes's and the three of us high fived and hugged for like five minutes. I think it was the first project which I didn't t totally screw up all by myself, I was proud and let practically the whole world know!


	8. Reptilian

Chapter VIII: Reptilian

_Axelle's P.O.V._

I'd like to tell you all about my Christmas but it might take a while and it's not the most important thing for you… or even for me, when I think about that amazing event which happened a bit later, after which I felt… special, new, proud, surprised, doubtful…

Anyway, so just a few words about it anyway because it really was a cool Christmas (Christmas is always cool!). I was at my grandparents' house (my dad's parents, non-magical, living in the centre of France in a farm, we split the farm and each of my gran's children own a part, it's amazing, like a castle), with my parents, my sister, my two Uncles, my Aunt and all their children who are my cousins. We were especially happy to see Mellissa, who had the same age as me, Yohan, my so cute baby cousin and Pierre and Jules, who have the same age as me and Orane. We had loads of fun with them, the house was beautifully decorated, the 'reveillon' (night before Christmas) was very festive and a real fiest and my presents were really awesome. This year, I got an awesome new sofa for my room, it makes like a bubble with soft cushions inside and it's red and orange. With it, came a wii game and a game of cluedo for me and my sister to share, and the usual clothes or books.

But I was waiting impatiently for the few days we would spend at 'the burrow', with all my friends. A few days before, I started packing my bags to leave, since I was going directly to Hogwarts afterwards. In the end, I had a suitcase, a bag and my schoolbag when I kissed everyone goodbye at the train station. I was really sad to leave my parents, as always, and many times I just wished to go to a school next to my house, even if it had to be a normal school, and I knew I wouldn't see the rest of my family until August, so in my train to Paris I was quite melancholic. But this disappeared as soon as I saw my friends, in the middle of the tuilerries. Mrs Weasley had brought Dominika from the airport with Rose and r Weasley had picked me and Maria up from the train.

"So what did you get for Christmas ?" Maria chirmed happily. I answered first, then it was Dom who told us about her new professional quality canvas and paintbrushes which sounded awesome for her since she was a star at painting. Then Rose, jumping up and down, announced us she got some ice skates and Marianne finished by showing us her new itouch and telling us about the most awesome high heels her grandma had ever bought her for the reveillon and that she had successfully begged her mum to bring them too school (they all had loads of bags too, no wonder…)

I all hugged them happily and finally asked the questions which had been in my head since a moment:

"Mr Weasley, why are we walking down the tuilleries? And how are we going to get to your house? I mean, your parents' house isn't it?"

"Oh, it's a beautiful place here that's why…" he answered. "No, only joking, we are making our way to a wizard shop in town, there you guys can take a portkey, I have it here, but there's too many people about the streets so the ministry set up a travelling platform, hidden from view, for visitors. But I love Paris… " He finished, showing me an old pan which he had just retrieved from his bag. I smiled.

"And to answer your last question," Rose added happily "Yes, it is my grandparents' house but me and the cousins practically live there all holidays. Only this time, it's different, they're going away for the last few days, so we (by we I mean my family and the Potter family) get to keep the house. That's why we invited you."

"Thanks Rose, it's really going to to be awesome." Dom said.

But everything didn't happen as Rose or her parents had planned. We did take the portkey and everything (what a bizzare feeling!) but when we arrived, there were 4 or 5 cars in front of the house, which was buzzing like beehive full of busy bees (wow!): the Weasleys hadn't left yet. Rose's dad gulped:

"Wow, you're having trouble leaving!" Mrs Hermione remarked (I would call her Mrs Weasley but just there are so many around the place so I'll do this so you can follow.

"Yeah, well, we wanted to have muggle vacations, so we took 'the car' and I didn't imagine it would be so hard hard to pack." Mr Bill answered. "Charlie is coming with us as well as the three kids and Fleur has just emptied all the bags again to find her hair brush, I jumped on the occasion and reduced the size of all the suitcases by half when she wasn't looking. It's much better, but it's not so much muggle now."

I could see all the adults rushing about with bags, the children dragging themselves to help. Mr Arthur was talking loudly with his wife:

"Molly, we leave the plants here. Yes even the green bamboo. No, we don't have space. Yes, they will be fine. No, I know Ron can't take care of plants, Ginny will, now let's go!"

"Hey Mum, hey Dad." Mr Ron said. They both turned around.

"Oh, you're back… We're supposed to have left right?" Mr Arthur asked.

"Oh, never mind Arthur, we don't want to kick you out of your own house really…" Mrs Hermione replied. "Can we help you?"

"Yes!" said a man I recognise as Mr George, Fred's dad. "Put the girl's bags in Rose's room so we don't mistake them for ours first, you might meet James and Fred on the way, they aren't helping much."

"OK." Rose said, leading the group to her room in the top part of the house. She pushed a pretty pink door open and said:

"Well… I know it's not really a good way but one of you will sleep with me in here since Lily is going with Lucy and the other two will have to sleep in Roxy's room. Is that OK?"

"Yeah, that's fine for me." Maria said.

"I'm going with Rose!" I exclaimed before they could say anything else and Rose burst out laughing.

"We'll I guess I'll go with Marianne then." Dom said, sticking her tongue out at me and then laughing too.

"OK, it's the next door." They both exited the room with their suitcases and at the moment they opened the door, they both screamed. Me and Rose rushed to see 'what on earth had happened', to find the two girls laughing with James and Fred who were covered by sheets and howling like ghosts.

"So funny I forgot to laugh!" Rose said.

"Hey Rosie, hey Axie." James said, coming to greet us.

"Now I know your dad was right when he said you weren't helping much…" I said as Fred said hi to Marianne and everybody too.

"We're supposed to help, but we'd rather let Albus and his twins do the work, if they're here." Fred told us.

"But you really need to get down now, you're mum's rather stressed…" Rose pointed out.

"Ok!" Fred shot up and ran down the stairs.

We helped the Weasleys pack their cars and remarked to a few events of great interest, like the moment Mr Percy had to run after Mr Charlie's car because they had Charlie's bag and he had Mrs Audrey's. Or when Lucy was very busy writing on her grandparents' daily to-do-list 'Give a present to Lucy', 'Give a big present to Lucy', 'Don't forget Lucy's present' and so on, to her uncle's big amusement (Mr George)…

But we soon met with our whole group and had a big lunch while talking about Christmas, presents, holidays, school… The next few days were really amazing, real fun for all of us, with no time to get bored. The day after, we went to the ice rink so Rose could try on her new skates, and we all borrowed skates to fool around more than skate on the ice. Rose, who had taken lessons, was a professional, she showed spins, jumps… she was as gracious and light as a fairy and we were all subdued. Then we tried one of the twins' present, a muggle mini helicopter with a remote control to fly it. The whole afternoon was dedicated to sledging down the hills around the house (it was so fun, we also tried with two people per sledge, on the stomach, standing up…) or just rolling and playing in the snow. The next morning, we resumed this activity by a boys vs girls snowman competition which was supposed to be judged by the adults, who chose their own one as winner. But a severe snow storm forced us back in, cold and wet, to sip a hot chocolate around the crackling warm fire.

At some point, the boys sat up and proposed a game of wizard snap in their room. I was about to agree, when I thought of a very important and intriguing question I wanted to ask Mr potter, without the boys around. I glanced at my friends and after a few seconds they got my point and nicely refused:

"Well, you go, play a game and we'll come soon. I'm still quiet cold and I like it here in front of the fire." Maria said simply.

"Yeah!" Dom assured them.

"OK, then, as you wish." As the boys disappeared at the turn in the stairs, the girls looked back at me, expecting to know why I wanted them to stay. I knew they would never have the inquisitiveness (long word I found in my dictionary) to ask him, but would be happy to learn more about it.

"Hum… Mr Potter. Could I ask you a question?" He put down his newspaper and answered positively. "So… Hum… The boys told us you could speak to snakes…." I started. "We were all quite amazed, could you tell us about it?" As Mr Potter nodded and started to clean his glasses, Rose immediately answered.

"It's called being a parselmouth, and speaking parseltongue. You can talk to snakes as you said, but two parselmouths can speak parseltongue together if they want. It isn't a magical power you can develop, you have it or you don't, when your born and-"

"That's OK, Rose. We more wanted to know you Uncles opinion, his experience, otherwise we would have asked you directly." Dom cut her. We agreed, and Mr Potter picked up from where Rose had left.

"Yes, you get from your ancestors, in what muggles call 'genes', the usual parselmouths are descendants of Salazar Slytherin, the first known to be parselmouth. But I'm not, of course, I would have told you. It's because of the curse Voldemort put into me, the one which made my scar, he transferred a bit of his power to me, not intentionally I think... I discovered it my second year, when during our duelling club your twins dad issued a snake from his wand, and I found it listened to what I said. The people in school didn't like that too much though." We were all absorbed by what he said, maybe even Rose had never heard this far.

"Could you umm… Show us what it sounds like?" Marianne asked shyly. He smiled, I think he liked our pertinence though.

"Yes, please!" said Scorpius behind us.

"Hey! You were eavesdropping!" Dominika complained.

"Well we got the idea you didn't want us to stay… so we listened and came!" James said, as if it was the most logical and natural thing in the world. "Thanks for telling on us by the way!"

"Never mind!" someone said behind us. "So go on with your little demonstration Harry!" it was Mr Ron, who was winking at us.

"It's really amazing and creepy." Mrs Hermione warned us. We gathered around. The parselmouth coughed and looked at the ark of the teapot handle closely, before saying a few hisses. Everybody around me started buzzing with excitement as the handle seemed to come alive, to detach itself and slithered his way to his waker.

"That's a joke right?" I said suddenly, confused. "Your all playing a trick on me aren't you?" I added with a bit of fright in my voice. "

"What are you talking about! It was so cool!" Arachno snapped.

"No. It was English!" I nearly shouted.

"Axelle, it was hisses and sizzles, that's all." Dom told me, incredulous.

"No! He said _'awake and come to me, lord of reptilians' _! Didn't you sir?" I turned a pleading face to him.

"Axelle you can speak parseltongue?" he whispered. I froze. How could I. "I mean, it was exactly what I said, and according to the others it wasn't' English so…" I stood there my mouth wide opened I confusion. Then, to check, Mr Potter gave a second order to the porcelain snake which was sliding along the table. Another series of hisses I could understand.

"Oh my god Axelle! That's so wonderful! You're so lucky!" Marianne exclaimed after I had repeated the sentence to Albus's dad.

"Well um… yeah… I guess." Everyone started talking loudly and came to congratulate me, Mrs Ginny saying she would try to call my mum to tell her, James hugging me, Dominika listing a thousand things we could do, Scorpius asking me to check for Slytherin in my family tree… They then asked me give orders to the pet snake (Mr Arthur's pet snake, a pretty cobra) because it was easier on real snakes at first, and finally we all ate a very cheery and tasty dinner, hungry from this great discovery.

All this time it felt like a dream. In fact, it took a while to sink in. That I was special. Unique. That I had this very little quality not so many people had. Why was is it me? Was I related to Salazar Slytherin? Reflecting on these narrow subjects during the rest of the evening, I just couldn't say anything… I just smiled.


End file.
